Renewable and non-renewable energy resources

Non-renewable energy is a resource that cannot be replaced when it is used up.

Renewable energy is energy that comes from resources which are continually replenished on a human timescale.

Solar Energy

Energy from sunlight is captured in solar panels and converted into electricity.

Wind Energy

Wind turbines (modern windmills) turn wind energy into electricity.

Wave Energy

The movement of seawater in and out of a cavity on the shore compresses trapped air, driving a turbine.

Geothermal

In volcanic regions it is possible to use the natural heat of the earth.

Cold water is pumped underground and comes out as steam.

Steam can be used for heating or to power turbines creating electricity.

Hydrological or Hydroelectric Power (HEP)

Energy harnessed from the movement of water through rivers, lakes and dams.

Coal Energy (fossil fuel)

Formed from fossilised plants and consisting of carbon with various organic and some inorganic compounds.

Mined from seams of coal, found sandwiched between layers of rock in the earth.

Burnt to provide heat or electricity.

Oil Energy (fossil fuel)

A carbon-based liquid formed from fossilised animals.

Lakes of oil are sandwiched between seams of rock in the earth.

Pipes are sunk down to the reservoirs to pump the oil out.

Widely used in industry and transport.

Nuclear Energy

Radioactive minerals such as uranium are mined.

Electricity is generated from the energy that is released when the atoms of these minerals are split (by nuclear fission) in nuclear reactors.

Natural gas (fossil fuel)

Methane and some other gases trapped between seams of rock under the earth's surface.

Pipes are sunk into the ground to release the gas.

Often used in houses for heating and cooking.

Case Study: M4 corridor in the UK

The corridor is a narrow belt of land that has become home to a growing number of services and high-tech industries. It is sometimes described as England's Silicon Valley. It's spine is provided by the M4 motorway, which stretches westwards from London, along the main railway line to Bristol and Cardiff. It contains a number of well-established cities and towns with significant manufacturing such as Reading with the 3 b's (beer, biscuits and bulbs) and Cardiff is another port once famous for the export of coal, iron and steel but now the home of Welsh Assembly. However, those old industries have now largely disappeared and been replaced with newcomers. Some of those that have disappeared and have been replaced with newcomers. Some of those that have disappeared and have been replaced by newcomers. Some have resurfaced in other countries. In the second half of the 20th century the character of the corridor began to change. There was a considerable growth in population because commuters and their families moved out of London in search of cheaper and better housing. The M4 motorway was opened and the main railway line was upgraded. New factories appeared, many of them associated with food and drink. Other involve cars, electrical and other household goods. However, most conspicuous among the new industrial enterprises were so called high-tech industries. Such as Compaq, NEC and Intel are here (in the quaternary sector). Reading for example, has become home to a mix of businesses that include Microsoft, ING Direct, Prudential and Ericsson.

What factors have encouraged this concentration of high-tech industries?:

•Transport and accessibility- the presence of Heathrow is an important factor. The nature of much high-tech activity is essentially international. Both staff and products have to move around the globe quickly and often on short notice.

•Labour- suitably qualified and experienced workers enjoyed large salaries. They can afford to choose where they live. The corridor is able to offer many attractive residential locations.

•universities- many of the companies in the corridor are involved in research and development for the reason 'feed off' links with universities and establishments. The corridor contains at least 3 universities with high research rankings -Reading, Bristol and Cardiff. Not far outside the corridor to the North is Oxford University.

•Incentives- firms have been encouraged to set up by various incentives offered by local government authorities, the UK government and EU. The incentives include earmarked Greenfield sites at reduced prices and with tax exemptions.  

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities

Growth

Three important points that had already been made about the tertiary and quaternary sector:

•  These two sectors involve the provision of a wide range of services
• The tertiary sector grows in importance with economic development-it generates much employment and economic wealth
• The tertiary sector is only found in the most economically advanced countries- it is largely about information and communication and makes use of the latest technology 

As a county moves along the development pathways several things happen:

• It is able to afford more and better social services, such as schools, medical centres, hospitals and libraries
• People earn more money to spend in the shops on 'basic' things such as food and clothing
• After they have bought the basics, people have more money left (disposable income) to spend on luxuries, such as entertainment, holidays, eating out and recreation 
• People's tastes changes and this impacts on the tertiary sector. For example, cinemas are closed because many people now prefer to watch DVDs at home. 
• New technology creates and makes possible new services, new services connected to ICT, broadband service providers, website designers, mobile phone networks, software programmes as the servicing of PCs ad laptops.

His shows the cycle of growth within the tertiary sector. However there are two other reasons for the rise of the tertiary sector, particularly in the UK and other HICs. First the tertiary sectors share of employment and GDP have been been influenced by the decline in the primary and secondary sectors. Secondly the population is becoming greyer. Fifteen percent of the UK's population is over 64 years old. Th rate of spending amongst retired people are rising faster than any other age groups. 

Location   

Nearly every economic activity- whether it be a quarry, a factory or a shop- is found in a particular place for good reasons. Those reason are called location factors. For many services within the tertiary  sector, a common need is to be readily accessible to customers.
The key location in the centre of cities and towns, in the central business districts (CBD). CBDs are accessible because this is where the urban transport networks, public and private, converge.  

The changing fortune of manufacturing

The great majority of the world's manufacturing production is concentrated in a small number of countries. In fact, over 50% is accounted for by three countries (USA, China and Japan). manufacturing today is highly concentrated, the distribution pattern is a changing one.  If we were to compare the current situation with that of 50 years ago significant global shifts would be apparent.  Since 1970 the HTC's share of world manufacturing declined from 88% to 70%.  Today around 25% of manufacturing production occurs in NICs.  Particularly the so-called emergent economies of China, Brazil, Russia and India.  What is causing this gradual global shift in manufacturing from the HIC's to the MIC's?  The location of manufacturing has always been influenced by factors such as: raw materials, energy, labour, markets, transport and land.  Those factors are still influential but their relative importance has changed and with it the location of today's manufacturing. 


There have been six particularly important developments:

• Transnational Corporations (TNC's) - emergence of huge companies that control much of the world's manufacturing.  These companies are locating their factories in the cheapest and therefore more profitable locations.
• Transport - Now much faster and cheaper, therefore distance, say from raw materials or markets, is no longer as significant as it used to be.
• Communications - Because of the speed and efficiency of modern communications a manufacturing company can keep in immediate touch with factories scattered in different countries.
• Energy - Much modern manufacturing relies on electricity as it's main source of energy.  Due to national grid systems, this form of energy can be made available almost anywhere.
• Governments - Increasingly influencing the distribution of manufacturing.  They are able to tempt industrialists to set up factories within their borders by various incentives, such as exemption from taxes or cheap ready made factory building.
• New Branches of Manufacturing - Manufacturing is no longer just about making heavy good such as steel, ships and chemicals.  Manufacturing today is very much about making a widening range of customer products, such as electrical and electronic goods, clothes and furniture.  Because of the 4 previous developments the location of the production of these kinds of products is described as footloose.  In other words their location is no longer tied by location factors, such as the nearness of raw materials and markets.

The net affect of these developments has been to increase the importance of one location factor, labour.  For many types of manufacturing the costs of labour are critical.  The TNC's in particular are constantly on the look-out for cheap labour as their education levels and skills. It is because of the latter that the UK, despite losing many of its traditional industries, it is still the sixth leading manufacturing nation.

Case Study: The global biotechnology industry

Biotechnology is on of the so-called high-tech industries, often located on purpose-built science parks. They cover a large range of activities that are broadly related to the modification of living organisms for human purposes. It's origins go back to the domestication of animals and plants, the improvement of both plants and animals i.e making them more productive or disease resistant. Biotechnology involves applying sciences such as biology, in fields such as:

• Healthcare- searching for plants with medical value, developing new drugs
• Food production- the development of genetically modified (GM) crops and livestock
• Industrial use of crops- vegetable oils and biofuels
• The environment- recycling, treating waste and cleaning up polluted sites 
• Warfare- the development of biological weapons 

United States= 3301 biotechnology firms

UK= 48

Slovenia= 4

Biotechnology is primarily a quaternary activity since it is largely about research and development and serves all three of the other sectors. A basic location factor is a good supply of graduate scientists. All of the worlds biotechnology firms are in HICs. Most of the firms have links with university reaserch departments. Virtually half of these firms are located in the USA. 

Once these firms come up with a product, such as a new anti-malaria drug, that is believed to have a good market, then it will simply be a matter of setting up some form of factory based mass production. It is likely that such a factory could be set anywhere in the world where labour and land are cheap. It would need to be located in an HIC, near the research centre or near to any particular market or raw material source.

Informal Employment

There is a fifth sector but it not recognised in the official figures produced by governments. This is called the informal sector, also referred to as the 'black economy' in the sense that it is unofficial and unregulated. This sector employes millions of people across the world, mainly in LICs.

In LICs today large numbers of people are migrating from rural to urban areas. The quality of life is better in towns and cities.







Characteristics

Might involve selling matches or shoelaces on the street, ice-cream vending, shoe shining, rubbish collecting or scavenging bottles, cans and other types of waste recycling. Some are do desperate as to resort to begging, petty crime or prostitution. Common features of LIC urban areas are shanty towns.

An interesting group of informal activities fall under the heading of Paratransit. these arise because of the inadequate official transport in LIC towns and cities. They usually take the form of minibuses, hand-drawn and motorised rickshaws, scooters and pedicabs (tricycles used as taxi's).They add to the problems of congestion, on already busy, overloaded roads. These informal activities have some benefits. they provide a wide range of cheap goods and services that would otherwise be out of reach of many people. They provide the poor with a means of survival. Because earning are low, informal activities do nothing to break the cycle of poverty in LIC urban areas. Other costs with the informal sector include:

• no health care or unemployed benefits
• a high exposure to work-related risks
• an uncertain legal status

The involvement of children in economic activity:

In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, it is estimated that there are half a million children in the informal sector, most of them work from dusk to dawn earning on average of 50 cents a day to help them support their families. The jobs range from begging and scavenging. These children work in vulnerable conditions, exposed to hazards such as street crime, violence, drugs, sexual abuse, toxic fumes and carrying excessive loads. The children suffer poor health in theses conditions.